[johan osterman]

Originally posted by Jasper:
No offense, but this is actually a very good example of what's wrong with Magic Duel. It has _such_ a chilling effect that everyone (not just the good players) stayed away from it unless they absolutely dominated in Astral Magic. Besides, do you really expect all of your players to have time to testbed _every_ aspect of Dominions?!

People's decisions on this were almost entirely made on how Mind Duel was _supposed_ to work, not how the bug made it work. Besides, do you really expect players to have enough time to testbed _every_ aspect of Dominions?!

The effects of Mind Duel on Pretender design and faction balance are IMHO undeniable and undesireable.

Non taken. The thing is that we in our circle of friends, beta testers etc have not experienced mind duel as major factor in pretender design. Perhaps we play less competetively or some such thing, but it has never appeared to be a factor in the same big way it appeared from the cspigs discussions. This coupled with the bug and misperception of its mechanics appears to me indicative that its fearsome reputation is disproportionate to its actual impact in the game. If recall correctly Ying Wan Lam also made an argument concering the over estimation prominence of the Astral King, in conjunction with the testing that resulted in the discovery of the mind duel bug. As far as I can recall the argument was if not exhaustive at least somewhat convincing and show that other players from other player Groups share our estimate.

To sum it up: I have played a fair number of games with reasonably competent players and mind duel has not in my experience been a major factor in pretender design. Nor does its power when analysed appear to me to be so decisive as the cspigs discussions imply. I think the astral kings have been attributed consequence disproportionate to their actual power. Perhaps we could play a game or two when Dominions 2 becomes available to you.